The Varied Strains of Democrats

The most useful way to think of the range of Democratic strategies today is to envision a square. The x axis represents ideology, with the centrism of, say, Joe Manchin on the left-hand side of the square and the social democracy of, say, Bernie Sanders on the right-hand side. The y axis represents the degree of anti-Trump activism, with what we might call the "respond as if things were normal" semi-passivity at the bottom of the square and the "respond as if we’re in a constitutional crisis threatening democracy" activism at the top.